When it came to entertainment, Lawrence Welk believed in giving the audience what it wanted. As for making money, the legendary bandleader believed in two things: entertainment and real estate.

That basic combination of principles is propelling a growth spurt for Welk Resorts, the San Marcos-based hospitality company he launched in 1964 with the purchase of a golf course, motel and mobile-home community in rural Escondido.

Today his grandson Jon Fredricks is president of Welk Resorts. He runs a portfolio that includes timeshare resorts in Palm Springs, Lake Tahoe, Branson, Mo., and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, that are highly rated by

The Cabo and Tahoe resorts are almost brand new; workers are building units at the 450-acre Escondido property; and the company is developing resorts in Kauai, Hawaii, and Breckenridge, Colo.

This surge appears to be particularly well timed. Welk Resorts runs with an extremely conservative balance sheet, putting off expansion until it can pounce on bargains.

It recently closed a $159 million offering of 10-year bonds secured by loans to its customers that snagged investment-grade ratings from Standard & Poor’s and cost a rock-bottom interest rate of 3.18 percent.

Fredricks said Welk bought the Tahoe property for less than its replacement cost after a 2012 foreclosure. He’s taking the Kauai property over from the developer. The company has been stalking the Breckenridge location site since 2005.

This patient, long-term approach to business — along with an obsession with high quality — appears to run in the family.

Lawrence Welk, who died in 1992, was a famously conservative and savvy businessman.

He honed his music act for decades on the road, constantly adapting his easy-listening “Champagne” style and even his jokes to audience response.

“Grandpa focused on what the customer wants,” Fredricks said.

Here’s a hopeful fact: Welk didn’t “make it” until he was 52, when in 1955 his popular show in Los Angeles was picked up by ABC for national broadcast. The show ran for 31 years, most of them in profitable, first-run syndication.

After Welk became wealthy, he still drove a Dodge and took vacations with his wife in their mobile home at Escondido’s Champagne Village. He plowed his earnings into music and real estate.

Recognizing the value of owning his music, he bought a publishing company and a record label.

After buying a block in downtown Santa Monica, Welk was evaluating the development that he eventually built into the iconic GTE headquarters office building on Wilshire Boulevard.

According to family folklore, he initially balked when advisers said he would have to borrow 50 percent of the project cost. (Most commercial projects use far more leverage.)

The Escondido property was put on Welk’s radar for its tax advantages as a citrus farm by Ted Lennon, his financial adviser and uncle of the Lennon Sisters singers.

“That conservative nature has stayed with us,” Fredricks said.

Over the years, the family business has never needed outside partners. To maintain quality and hit time schedules, Welk Resorts became its own construction company.

Fredricks said revenue grew in the Great Recession, aside from a flat year straddling 2008 and 2009.

“We never lost money, never ended up in a precarious condition,” he said.

About 12 years ago family members bought out relatives who wanted liquidity. Advisers specializing in family-owned businesses recommend this kind of occasional consolidation to ward off dilution as well as hard feelings.

Today Welk Resorts is owned by seven family members, a former company president, and 12 percent is held by an employee stock ownership plan.

This kind of intergenerational discipline is unusual, to put it mildly.

Experts say that 70 percent of family wealth disappears in the second generation. By the end of the grandchildren’s era, 90 percent is gone.

Some dissipation is natural as resources are divided among increasing numbers of heirs. But bigger factors when younger generations fail to expand the business range from lack of interest to inadequate instruction from their parents.

Fredricks worked as a commercial banker in Orange County in the 1990s, learning the pitfalls of excess leverage firsthand during the real estate crash early in the decade. After joining the family business, he became a certified hotel administrator and went on to serve as chairman in 2006 and 2007 of the American Resort Development Association, a trade group.

It was his uncle Larry Welk, a successful record company executive who became the resort group’s CEO, who steered the company in the 1980s into the timeshare industry.

A timeshare is a form of ownership that allows people to buy the right to use a property. After a rocky start in the 1970s, the industry has evolved into a regulated, mature business in which most buyers can sell their shares or exchange “points” for travel around the world.

The industry is dominated by big brands like Disney, Hyatt, Marriott and Hilton. Fredricks says Welk Resorts built a niche in premium properties.

I’m embarrassed to admit that I thought the Escondido property was a retirement community with golf and hotel rooms. My grandparents were big Lawrence Welk Show fans, so I assumed the resort was designed for them.

In reality, the typical Welk buyer is 49 years old, lives in California and wants vacations that keep kids and other family members entertained.

Welk resorts have condominium-style rooms with kitchens, lavish water slides and playgrounds. The Escondido complex has a retail center and theater with music and Broadway-style productions. It’s something like a cruise ship on land.

I got interested in the Welk family business story in June after I rented a condo at their Sirena Del Mar property in Cabo San Lucas. My companion suggested it based on